You Don't Count
by Abubble1
Summary: Keefe Sencen was supposed to be in love with Sophie Foster. Tam Song was not supposed to care about anybody besides Linh. They were not supposed to be in love with each other. So where did the system fail? *T for angst*
1. Chapter 1

Sophie Foster was supposed to be the person Keefe was in love with, and therefore the first thing on his mind when he wakes up. This was Keefe's second thought when he blinked his eyes open on Monday morning. His first thought, however, was much more startling. One name. It was one name.

_Tam Song_.

Of course, even from when he was little, he had known he wasn't the straightest line on the graph. Bisexual. That's what he was. He had read the term in one of the human books Sophie had taken off of her sister's shelf for him. He had tried to hide it, he really had. He had always liked Sophie. But just not in that way. He always tried to flirt a little harder with Sophie so people thought he was the straightest elf in the Lost Cities. Being LGBTQ was frowned upon in the Lost Cities, all couples deemed a bad match, never mind his father. Tam Song though? Even he had standards. How had he fallen in love with the one person who seemed to want nothing to do with him? Keefe tried to ignore the thoughts he was having about Tam. He tried to shove him into a box in the back of his brain. No luck. Keefe ran his hand through his hair one last time before going under his leap master, and hollering "FoxFire"

Before you ask. Yes, I'm Gay. Yes, me, Tam Song. Gay, Yes, I have always been Gay. Yes, I will always be Gay. And yes. I am in love With Keefe Sencen


	2. Chapter 2

Tam POV

My first glimpse of him today was during morning announcements. I was with Linh, I saw him with Sophie. He glanced at me, blushed, and looked away. What was that about? I asked myself. I watched him talk to Sophie, a jealous look in my eye. Linh spied Biana on the other side of the room, and left me to go talk to her. I continued watching Keefe talk to Sophie. I didn't hear the person come up behind me,

"You too?" It was Fitz.

"Me too what?"

"It's hard enough competing with Keefe for her." He said.

"You think I like Sophie?" I asked him, perplexed.

"Well... You were looking at her weird." He pointed out. I wanted to point out that one. She and Fitz were no longer a couple, two. Ewwwwwwwwww. I wondered why he hadn't even thought of me looking at Keefe. Fitz wasn't the most open elf in the Lost Cities, which was probably the reason he and Sophie were no longer a couple anymore. I scrambled to find an excuse that would make sense of why I was staring at Keefe and Sophie.

"I was... People watching." I heard Fitz's bodyguard snort from behind us. I was probably blushing. Fitz looked at me like I was crazy.

"Okey dokey then." He said, walking away. I watched him go because I needed some other reason not to look at Keefe. I heard Gritzel say.

"You poor clueless elf."

It was lunch. I had been the third to the table, after Biana and Dex, who, of course, we're sitting as close to each other as possible without sitting on each other's laps. I picked at my purple mush that Sophie said tasted like a hamburger. Keefe slid in next to me.

"I see we have a new couple in town." He said, looking at Dex and Biana. They scooted apart a centimeter. I blushed. Just from the sheer feeling of warmth radiating off of him. "Whats up bangs boy?" He asked me.

"I uh- I" I was caught off guard by his question.

"Are you astounded by my beauty or something?" He asked. I watched a tint of pink fill his cheeks as I thought to myself;

Yes, something like that. Sophie sat down next to me, Fitz across from her, and Marella next to Biana. Marella scooted uncomfortably away from Biana, who had already regained the centimeter that had pushed her and Dex apart.

"What's up with you two?" Marella asked, gesturing to Biana and Dex.

"I ship it!" Sophie squealed. Sophie had taught us all that prase when Linh and Wylie had been dancing at the last ball we had been invited to. Fitz pulled out a slice of mallowmelt from his lunch bag, and said

"Does anybody want this, I'm not really hungry." I was sure Sophie was going to claim it, but she just shook her head and kept eating some weird green sludge.

"I want it," Keefe said across the table at Fitz. Fitz slid the Mallowmelt halfway across the table. Keefe reached for the treat. His arm brushed mine. It was like there were sparks erupting between us. Like fireworks, coming from just the contact of his arm against mine. He jumped.

"God bangs boy." Was all he said, as he regained his posture and plunged into his mallowmelt. And then I remembered.

Stupid Empaths.


	3. Chapter 3

I was halfway through my mallowmelt when Tam, who had been steaming, got up and left. I wanted to run after him and tell him how I had his feelings matched. Everybody looked at me like I should have said a joke about him. I just stared at my plate. I wondered where he was now. I could imagine him hiding in some shadowy corner of some far-out corner of Foxfire. It just occurred to me how unfair it was to everyone else that I was an empath. I got to know everyone's feelings without their permission most of the time. Unlike telepathy, there were no real laws against reading other people's feelings. Most empaths can block off the feelings of other people when it is only a brush of skin. But not with me apparently. I finished my mallowmelt, and then I decided that since I had gotten to know Tams's feelings I should tell him mine. I got up without acknowledging anybody else and left.

I heard someone coming around the corner. I was sure it was Linh, coming to see if I was okay. I was sitting in the darkest corner foxfire had to offer.  
"Tam?" I heard someone ask. Of course, it was Keefe. I bet he was here to rub in my unrequited love even more. _Why is it always me?_ I asked myself. I realized this was probably the first time he had called me Tam in a while.

"Yes, Keefe," I said impatiently "Come to rub in my gayness some more?" I asked him, "As if your existence wasn't rubbing it in enough." I muttered under my breath.

"Can I sit?" He asked, fumbling around in the dark.

"Fine," I muttered, as I felt him sit down next to me. We sat in the dark for a minute. "What?" I asked him, as he made no move to speak.

"I. I just. I-"

"I'll go," I said, "obviously you're even more in need of this corner if you can't even form a coherent sentence. _If you can't even form a rejection_." I said, a bite in my voice at the last sentence. I pulled myself up. I was a couple of yards away when he called,

"Not a rejection." I froze. Messing with me. That's what he was doing. As if his presence wasn't messing with me enough already.

"What?" I heard him sigh.

"Your feelings... They're... Reciprocated."


	4. Chapter 4

"Your feelings are... reciprocated."

I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that. Ican'tbelieveIdidthat. I don't share my feelings. Empaths usually hide their feelings, and while I'm usually the exception to the rule. I'm not in that area. We are so used to feeling other people's feelings, that our's become worn down, and the ones that aren't, we keep hidden. Tam is now looking at me like I'm crazy.

"Really?" He asks me.

"Really," I affirm.

"You're not joking with me?" He questions.

"It's not really a matter to be joked around with," I tell him.

"So you're gay?" He asks as he sits back down next to me.

"Something like that. I think the term is Bisexual."

"Oh."

I scoot a little closer to him. We sit in silence for a second.

"Does Linh know you're gay?" I ask him.

"Nobody knows," he says darkly.

"I know," I quickly pointed out.

"You know what I mean."

"Yes. I do."

"Does anybody know about you?" He asks me.

"No," I take a breath, "my father would kill me if he knew, Fitz is the golden boy, so I don't think I should tell him. I've thought about telling everybody else though."

"I'm sorry," he says.

"For what?" I ask him.

"I'm not sure," he pauses "Where are we going?"

"We're sitting on the ground. So nowhere."

"I mean with each other."

"I didn't know you could be so deep, bangs boy."

"You called me Tam earlier."

"Coping mechanism."

"Where are we going?"

"Wherever you want us to go," I told him. I poked his hand. "May I?"

"Sure."

"No hidden feelings?"

"From you, I have nothing to hide," so I took his hand.


	5. Chapter 5

**Two in one day! Happy Saturday. *To the sixty people who actually read my fanfic***

I can't believe I am holding Keefe's hand right now. We must be ditching class at this point, but I don't think I would have been able to concentrate anyway. I wondered where Ro was. Maybe she had known all along about Keefe's feelings and decided to stay behind when he left to look for me. Keefe is running his fingers up my palm. I can't believe this is happening. I never thought it would. But at the same time, I am wondering;

What took us so long?

I can't believe I am running my fingers up Tam's palm. I haven't skipped class for a while, so I know my teacher won't mind _that_ much that I'm skipping. I know Tam hasn't skipped much at all, so I'm pretty sure he's fine. It's weird how everyone thinks Tam's the bad boy, even though I'm sure he couldn't even dream up the great gulon incident if he tried. *Not that the incident was me.* I am just now realizing how long I've wanted to run my hand over Tam's hand. I think it's been longer then I've known it. I am also just now realizing that my half kiss with Biana has been the only kiss I've ever had. I hope that Tam wouldn't mind that I'm probably very bad at kissing. Not that Tam and I are going to be kissing... Oh, who am I kidding, of course, we're going to be kissing. Tam's probably kissed fifty elves. Probably every elf at exilium.

I'm sitting here wondering if Keefe's going to kiss me. Actually, I know today's going to end with him kissing me, but I'm not sure when. I think Keefe's had a solid one kiss less than how many I've had. Which is two. One kiss with a girl before I left for exilium, and about fifty with the same guy at exilium. This is the first time in months I've thought of that boy from Exilium. I wonder how Conroy is doing now. I quickly dismiss the thought of him now. Less than thirty seconds after I dismiss Conroy from my mind, Keefe says.

"Can I kiss you?" He takes a deep breath and says his next sentence without punctuation or breathing. "I feel like we're just sitting here in silence, and I'm sitting here holding your hand and I'm getting some weird vibes off of you and I think they mean you want to kiss me or someone or I don't know"..." Can I kiss you?"

"Y-yeah. Sure." I stutter, trying hard not to turn pink. I must be turning pink because Keefe says;

"I mean if you don't want me to I won't," He said, also turning pink.

"No, no. Kiss me." It came out as a challenge.

"Maybe I will." So he did.

I think we were kissing for a while. Everything seemed to blur. This must be the most amount of classes I've skipped in a row. He was moving his hand through my bangs when we heard someone clear her throat behind us.


	6. Chapter 6

"I mean it's not like I didn't know you were in love with each other before today," Ro said to us. After she had found us, she dragged us to a better lit hallway and began giving us a talking to. "And it's not like I care that you're gay," she went on to say. "Because we don't care about that back home." Tam opened his mouth to say something,  
"I-"

"Not done talking Bangs Boy." she interrupted. "You just can't skip class to make out in a hallway. I think that's really what's wrong with this situation."

"Well, it's not like we're going to get pregnant." I pointed out to her.

"Unless we're in a fanfiction," Tam said.

"We're not in a fanfiction," Ro said, "but that's beside the point. Everybody's in study hall right now. We're going."

"Now?"

"Of course now, you stupid idiot." She grabbed me by one wrist and grabbed Tam by the other.

Tam winced as Ro tugged on his wrist.

"What?" She asked him, letting go of us.

"Nothing," he muttered, "proceed to lead us to our doom." She dragged us down Fozfire's intricate hallways to the library where everyone was doing study hall. She crashed open the doors and pulled us to the table where all of our friends were working. She sat us down across from Fitz and Sophie and then walked off to stand with everybody else's army of bodyguards. Everybody looked at us like we were crazy.

"Where were you?" Biana asked. I noticed she was sitting close to Dex again.

"Oh. I-uh." Tam started.

"Tam got up from lunch to go to Elwin after I totally found him out at lunch for being sick. And then I convinced him to skip class but then Ro found us." Everyone seemed to buy our story, as Ro plopped a book down in front of me and a book in front of Tam.

"You need something to do." She pointed out and walked away. We cracked them open. Everybody else turned back to their school work. Tam reached for my hand under the table. I took it.

**[sorry it's so bad. Writers Block kills sometimes.]**


	7. Chapter 7

I was holding Keefe's hand under the table. I couldn't believe this was happening. The book, as it turns out, was incredibly boring. Snore fest. It was about the history of Foxfire. Judging by the way Keefe seemed more interested in finding how many ways he could pull my fingers then he was interested in his book, his book was just as bad as mine. This must be Ro's punishment for us. Death via boredom.

"Keefe," Sophie said shutting her book. Keefe dropped my hand and closed his book too.

"Yes, Foster?"

"Will you help me study alchemy tonight? Dex said he couldn't because he was going to be busy tonight with something." Dex and Biana made awkward eye contact. Fitz cleared his throat.

"I suck at alchemy. I thought you knew this Foster." She shrugged, Fitz opened his mouth to say something,

"I can help you," Sophie blushed.

"I-uh."

"Just because we broke up doesn't mean we can't be friends." He pointed out. Everyone took in a breath.

"I-uh-it's just," Sophie stuttered. Everybody was uncomfortable. Fitz and Sophie didn't usually talk about their breakup in front of other people. "You're right." she sighed. "Would you like to come back home with me to study for alchemy." Fitz smiled and nodded. The bell rang.

"Oh thank god," Keefe said, standing up. "I don't think I could have stood one more minute of _fitzphieness," _Sophie sent a glare towards Keefe. Linh tugged on my sleeve.

"Can we go home?" She asked. I glanced at Keefe.

"Yeah, sure," I waved goodbye to Keefe, and let Linh pull me through the halls. She pulled out our home crystal for Sir Tiegans house.

-Time Jump-

I was sitting on a couch with Linh. She was reading, I was taking the shadows out of the corners. I looked out the window at the view of the woods we had from Tiergan's house. The woods seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. I heard a knock on the door. Linh didn't even glance up, and everyone else was out doing things for the black swan. I got up to get it. I opened the door. Keefe was leaning in the doorway holding a bouquet of flowers.

"H-hi," I stuttered.

"I told Ro the flowers were too much. I so said to her _he's not going to like the flowers please don't make me bring of Shadows flowers._" I looked around for Ro. "Don't worry, she's scoping out the woods for the Neverseen."

"The woods are endless," I told him. "She could be hours."

"Good."

"I would uh, invite you in, but uh, Linh doesn't uh, we probably uh." I felt something come up behind me.

"Linh doesn't what?" Of course, it was Linh. "Hi, Keefe. Why do you have flowers." I glanced at Keefe. He nodded.

"Linh. We need to tell you something."


	8. Chapter 8

Tam's POV

"So you're Gay?" I nodded. Linh, Keefe, and I were sitting at the table in the kitchen. "And you're gay." She said to Keefe.

"Something like that." She nodded.

"Does that... Bother you?" I asked her.

"No, not really."

"You can't tell people," I told her.

"I know," she says, and then she sighs, "I suppose I should leave it to you guys then," she says and gets up to go to her room.

"Want to go on a walk?" Keefe asks.

"Sure."

-Time Jump-

We were sitting on a rock in the middle of the woods, not exactly sure how we got there. We knew I had a home crystal so we could basically go wherever we wanted.

"How many people have you kissed?" He asked me out of the blue.

"How many people have I kissed or how many kisses I've had are two very different matters."

"Tell me both."

"Well... There was one very forced kiss with this girl..." I paused.

"Go on." Keefe deadpanned, laying back on the rock to look up at the webbing of trees above us.

"And uh... There was Conroy."

"Elaborate." A command... Not a question.

"There was... More than a few kisses between the two of us."

"Exilium?"

"Exilium." I paused. "He was the only other shade. We were both so alone at the time."

"Okay then. Is he still at exilium."

"He died." He did, death was rare in the Lost Cities, but he was dead. "One of Fintan's attacks."

"Oh." Keefe went silent.

Keefe's Pov

Dead. Death. I hate it. Why are we always losing the people we love?

"Can I show you something?" Tam asked me.

"Yeah. Sure." He rolled his sleeve up. There were four red scars on his arm.

"Oh."

"I know. Death for ya."

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"wow. You're much darker then you let on."

"I know."

"Can I kiss you? I really want to kiss you right now."

"Sure."


	9. Chapter 9

We were sitting at the lunch table a few days later than that day in the woods. Tam's foot was resting on mine, his silent, hidden, way of affection. He was making his way through some green sludge Sophie said tasted like Teriyaki Chicken. Everybody was talking about matchmaking. I could feel Tam's rising emotion even through his clothes.

"I would want all of you on my list!" Sophie exclaims. "What about you Tam? You look sad today."

"I hate all of you," he said darkly into his bowl. "Except Keefe. He doesn't count." I turned red. We had discussed telling people. We decided that we would. Tam lost the coin flip. He turned to me. "You don't count. I don't hate you. Actually, I would prefer it if you were on my list. Especially because we're dating."

"I'm glad the elves are far more progressed then humans, there's no law against gay marriage here right?" Sophie asked.

"No." Biana said curtly "There most definitely are laws against it."

"People are rebelling against it though." Dex goes, "My father's two best friends from foxfire are," he put up air quotations "Married."

"I think it's great," Linh said bluntly.

"Me too." Sophie, Dex, and Biana said in unison. Everyone looked towards Fitz who had gone silent.

"I uh." He paused. "Gonna be honest with you here, I don't really believe in that kind of thing."

"Wh- what?" I say. "What kind of thing?" He looked at me like I was crazy.

"The whole pretending to like people of your gender. You know they made a law against that so people would stop pretending. They would never start matchmaking. They made the law so people would just go to get their lists." Everybody gaped at him. Gritzel walked up to our table, grabbed Fitz by the arm, and pulled him away.

"Well," I said. "We got four out of five on our side so... I'd count today as a win." Tam reached for my hand and Biana started talking about the packet she was filling out for the matchmakers. The conversation began again as if the storm inside of us wasn't tearing us apart.


	10. Chapter 10

**[Sorry, it's been a while. I was doing things for school and finals and AAAAAAAAAAAAA. Also, we're getting really close to the end here. Maybe I'll post the last one on Christmas, that's a good present right?]**

Tam's POV

I'm regretting telling people things. Very much so in the case of Fitz. I can tell Keefe's regretting it too, even though _he's_ the empath. We're sitting on the swing in front of his house, not really touching because we know his father is inside. Ro is inside, doing whatever she does in her free time.

"I don't know what to say." He says to me.

"I don't know either," I told him.

"We don't know things."

"Right."

"Okay. So we both have no clue how we ended up here, or how to get out of here, or what to do about Fitz." He said.

"Right."

"So what _do_ we know?"

"We know that Biana and Dex and Sophie and Linh support us,"

"We know we support each other."

"Right."

"Right."

"Right."

"I love you bangs boy."

"I love you too hunkyhair."

"I've never said that to anybody."

"Me neither."

"Today is a day of firsts I guess."

"Right."

"Right."

**[Maybe****_ right_**** will be their always.]**


	11. Chapter 11 (Last Before Ending)

Keefe's POV

"Look. Keefe. I said I'm sorry like, ten times." Fitz said to me. Tam and Linh were getting their hair re-died, because the metal was really for show. This was the tenth time they had gotten it re-died, apparently, I was the only one Tam trusted with this information.

"Yeah, but are you actually sorry?"

"Yes!" I raised an eyebrow at him. Our bodyguards were watching us from the corner of my bedroom.

"Give me your hand," Fitz scooted farther away from me.

"Not to hold, you idiot, to see if you're lying. Empath dude, empath."

"Oh." Fitz gave me his hand.

"Are you really sorry?"

"Keefe, we're best friends and I was a little misguided before and I really really am sorry." He was. I dropped his hand. "I know sorry isn't ever enough. I know it's going to take a while for us to make up. But I don't want for us to ruin our friendship."

"Okay then." I fell back onto my pillow. "Now all you have to do is apologize to Tam." I got a call onto my imparter, it was Tam. "Speak of the devil," I muttered under my breath.

"KEEFE!" I held the phone away from my ear.

"What bangs boy?"

"Linh! Sh- She she"

"Spit it out."

"She's dead."

"Wh-what?"

"Glimmer! I've never hated anyone anymore then I hate Glimmer right now! She tried to attack us in Atlantis, and Linh died choking Glimmer with water. Can you come to Elwin's office in Foxfire?"

"Anything for you Bangs Boy, anything for you."


	12. Chapter 12

Keefe's POV

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S NOT DEAD?" I was walking up to Elwin's office when I heard Tam's voice through the walls. I stepped inside.

"She was under a light coma."

"WHAT THE HELL IS A LIGHT COMA?"

"It is a newly discovered medical ailment where a flasher can put people under a spell and make them look dead when they really are in a deep coma," Elwin was talking probably too calmly. "Hello, Keefe," Elwin said looking up at me.

"Hello."

"How do you get her out of a light coma?" Tam had calmed down, but his voice was shaky.

"Time I suppose, Livy is the only one who's treated Light Coma's, I called her over a while ago on my imparter she's coming,"

"Fine!" Tam was upset, he walked over to the occupied cot on the opposite side of the room. Elwin left to get something from his office. Linh was laying in the bed, looking very pale. Elwin's banshee was pacing below the bed. I crouched down to pick him up, he screeched.

"Fine Bullhorn, be that way," I said to the Banshee. Tam had no response to my joke.

"Keefe?"

"Yeah?"

"I need fresh air,"

"I know exactly where to go," ten minutes later, we were sitting in the secret cafeteria with plates full of ripplepuffs. "Tell me everything."

"So we were getting our hair re-died right, and then we were about to teleport home, and then boom light, and it was aiming right for me and Linh blocked it with her water and she started trying to choke Glimmer with water and then Glimmer sent a beam of light towards her, and then we were here. And then we all thought she was dead and then Elwin called Livy and Livy and she was like, 'I don't hear your banshee," and we checked and he was asleep in the corner and then Livy was like LIGHT COMA and then she said she would come over but I didn't know what that meant so I asked and then Elwin said she wasn't dead and then you came in," he took a breath.

"You're grammar gets really terrible when your under stress doesn't it?" He broke out into tears.

"What if she never wakes up?" His voice broke. I took a deep breath,

"I was never a happy ending kind of guy. I never liked the books that ended 'and they lived happily ever after.' I always liked the books that ended with half of the characters dead and the other half trying to survive. I never liked the books that were all about people frolicking in flowers, I liked the books with battles and wars. So I guess my point is, maybe our story has to have a little bit of a climax before it can be good, you know?" He nodded. "Besides, our story's not over yet. There's plenty of time to frolic in the flowers."

**[I can't believe it's over! Merry Christmas. *I know it's not Christmas yet but close enough.* Thank you to anyone who took the time to read all the way to the end, and to all of my three followers. If u got all the way here, then what are you procrastinating against? If u have any ships u want me to do, leave a review or something. I'll do other fandoms too if u want. Thank you again**

**Peace Out]**


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